


Veterinarian Clinics Are Not Where You Should Be Having Life-Altering Epiphanies

by MapacheLuna



Series: Kyouhaba Week - Soulmates Universe [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, KyouHaba Week, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 01:29:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4809755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MapacheLuna/pseuds/MapacheLuna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shigeru had never felt so betrayed by anyone as he does by his cat when he refuses to eat, thus leading to him standing in a clinic with a giant ginger fuzzball in his arms on his day off, staring at Kyoutani's heroically bruised face. </p><p>What is his life?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Veterinarian Clinics Are Not Where You Should Be Having Life-Altering Epiphanies

**Author's Note:**

> Heeeeeeeeeeeey, this one's not super late for once! Not as long as the last one, but I hope you guys won't be disappointed. The last one got A LOT more attention than I thought it would, and I'm kind of riding the high of it. This one doesn't have an ensemble cast but you haven't seen the last of the meddlesome cast. *Whispers*There is more Oikuro to come, and we'll probably find out who Iwaizumi's soulmate is too*Whispers* 
> 
> Kyouhaba Week: Day 3: Prompt/Pets AND Family :D

“Kentarou.”

Kentarou grunted, busying himself with one of the empty pet carriers littering the front of the clinic. If he looked busy enough, maybe his dad would leave him alone.

“ _Kentarou_.” Or not.

He let a long breathe out through his nose, and then took another one before turning around to regard the tall man staring back at him curiously. “Yeah?”

His dad scrutinized him for a beat, and yeah, Kentarou knew exactly where he got his harsh narrow stare from, but neither he nor his dad could really help it. His mom usually called it a bad turn of genetics. His sister called it their “resting mad faces,” and although he grumbled aloud about it, he couldn’t help but secretly agree.

“Are you okay?”

Kentarou blinked, staring at his dad as he shifted stiffly on his feet. Another trait his dad and he shared had to be their utter inability to have heart-to-heart conversations without being reduced to awkward messes, so why his dad was trying to put them in that situation was beyond him.

“Uh, yeah?” He coughed. “Are...you...okay?” That was the right thing to ask in these situations, right; you were supposed to ask the other person how they were too.

“I’m fine?” His dad looked just as confused, and Kentarou briefly entertained the idea that they could maybe forget all about this weird little moment and go back to work but then his dad shook his head and propped his hands on his hips, white coat bunching around his thick fingers. “I mean, about your, wrist,” He gestured in the air towards Kentarou’s hand, where it was propped against the crate. “Is something wrong?”

“What?” Kentarou frowned down at his hand. It looked okay to him; all the fingers were properly aligned, his wristband was snuggly in place, and he didn’t think he’d been moving it funny or anything. “It’s fine, why?”

“Well,” More awkward shifting. “It’s just that you’ve been keeping it covered. All the time.” His dad paused, giving him an opening that he had no intention of taking. “Is, are, you,” He moved his hand around in a half wave, “Embarrassed, or something, about, your soulmate mark?”

Kentarou stared at his dad, the words not really computing for him. Embarrassed? His dad thought he was embarrassed to have someone like Yahaba Shigeru as his soulmate? Or to have the flower that produced the same soft smell that always lingered in his wake on his wrist?

“Of course not,” Kentarou frowned. “I’ve had it my entire life, why would I get embarrassed now?”

“I don’t know,” His dad sighed, but Kentarou could see some tension leaking from his shoulders. “Your mother was worried. She was saying something about high school and peer pressure...”

“Mom didn’t say anything to me about that when we talked,” Kentarou mumbled, looking away. His mother was a doctor with Doctors Without Borders, and he’d talked to her just the night before, the bustle of the Sri Lankan town she was stationed in a steady background to her open, tired features as she grilled him about his newly acquired bruised face and any symptoms he may have been experiencing or was in danger of experiencing. She hadn’t said anything about his wrist.

“She wanted me to talk to you about it,” His dad admitted with a grimace.

“Aren’t you not supposed to tell me that part?” Kentarou asked dryly, watching his dad shrug helplessly.

“Figured honesty would work best,” He told him plainly, moving behind the front desk to look at the list of patients for the day. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, concerning your mark, you know. It’s a nice mark. Could be worse.”

Kentarou knew that. He didn’t have to look farther than his own parents to see first-hand how bad it could be. His mom had some sort of spiky, giant, tentacled ball on her wrist that she had to cover when she was working in pediatric wards, and his dad had one of the gaudiest, round cartoon hearts he had ever had the misfortune of seeing.

His dad, despite being just as angry and severe looking as Kentarou himself was, wore his mark with pride and never bothered to cover it, despite the stares it got him. Some of Kentarou’s earliest fights had actually revolved around rearranging the features of some smartasses who thought that little Kyoutani Kentarou with the flower on his wrist and the father with the heart on his were easy pickings. They had been very wrong.

“I know, dad,” Kentarou sighed, lifting the last pet carrier. “It’s not anything like that.”

“You sure?” His dad leveled a stare at him, one Kentarou met with equal gravity. “Because you know, we can, talk, about it, if you want.” Both of them grimaced at the thought.

“Right,” Kentarou coughed, jerking his head towards the back. “I’m going to go,” He jiggled the carrier, “And, you know.”

“Good, okay, that’s, good,” His dad nodded, looking back on his list with an unnecessary focus.

That’s how the receptionist found him a few minutes later, before she shooed him towards the back as well with a fond mutter of, “Kyoutani men. Honestly.”

* * *

 

“Momo,” Shigeru pleaded, actually on his knees in supplication. “Please don’t do this to me. I really, _really_ do not want to go outside today.”

His cat was, predictably, unmoved by his plight.

“You don’t understand,” Shigeru huffed. “Oikawa-san is out there,” He pointed in the vague direction of his window, “Somewhere, showing his soulmate around, and probably getting stopped by the police for public indecency complaints that he’ll be able to charm his way out of, and I don’t want to risk running into that!”

Momo just gave a plaintive meow before resting his head back down next to his untouched food bowl.

“Momooooo,” Shigeru moaned, dropping his head onto the floor with a thunk. “Why couldn’t you do this when Takeshi was home? Why me? Why do you hate me so much?” Shigeru was actually usually the person that spent the least amount of time at home, since volleyball practice was unrelenting, school, vacation, rain, or shine not being enough to stop Aoba Jousai’s training regime, so were it any other day, this responsibility would fall onto someone else. As it was though, his brother had been visiting his girlfriend’s family since Saturday night, and his mom had noticed that Momo had stopped eating his food Sunday morning. She had told Shigeru that if Momo still wasn’t eating by Monday, he’d have to take him to the vet, since he would be the only one home.

He had gone to bed with a stomach full of vanilla ice cream and a head full of “My Heart Will Go On,” hoping that he would wake up to find their Maine Coon’s bowl empty. He instead woke up to find his lazy behemoth of a cat perched on his chest, staring ideally at him with a full bowl in the kitchen.

“You’re so fat, how am I going to carry you?” Shigeru whispered into the tile underneath his face. Momo just batted at his hair.

* * *

 

“Uh, hi?” Shigeru hoped his smile looked anything but as strained as it felt as the receptionist sitting behind the cheerfully yellow counter looked up at him. “I’d like to see a doctor? For my cat?” He hefted Momo up a little, as if she could miss the giant, fluffy, ginger mass in his arms.

“Of course,” At least she was professional, Shigeru mused, watching her poise her fingers over her keyboard. “First time?”

“I don’t think so,” Shigeru frowned apologetically. “But I’m not the one who brings him, usually, so I’m not sure. My mom just gave me this address.”

“That’s no problem at all,” She reassured him with a smile. “Can I have your family name?”

“Sure! No problem. Yahaba.”

She hummed, looking at something on her computer. “Yahaba Momo?”

Shigeru laughed a little, jostling Momo a little. “Yeah, that’s him.”

“Well, what seems to be the problem, Yahaba-kun?” She looked at him over her glasses. “Would you like a regular check-up, or is there an emergency?”

“I’m not sure,” He shifted on his feet, aware of the other eyes in the waiting area behind him, on him and his giant cat. “We noticed that he stopped eating yesterday, and he’s been kind of lazy. Lazier than usual. He usually has more energy than this.” He pointed down with his chin to where Momo was half-heartedly looking around the office with the barest flick of his eyes.

“I see,” The receptionist was nodding along with his explanation, writing something on a pad of paper next to her elbow before looking back at her screen. “Well, Momo-kun’s regular veterinarian is booked for the day, but there’s an opening for an emergency consultation with one of our other full-time doctors, if that’s okay with you?”

“Of course!” Shigeru nodded rapidly. “I’ll take anything you have, especially on such short notice.”

She stood up and smiled up at him, waving the notepad in the air. “In that case, just wait right there, Yahaba-kun, and I’ll bring someone out to help you in a bit.” And with that, she walked out from behind the counter and walked towards the back, shouting, “Ken-chan! I need you to cover the front for a bit!”

Shigeru heard someone grunt something vaguely affirmative and felt an alarm go off in his head. He knew that voice.

Sure enough, Kyoutani Kentarou walked out of the back and immediately halted, blinking awkwardly at him, while he stood there and tried to will the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

Of course he’d run into Kyoutani in the one place he actually had to go to on their one day off the day after the other boy took a deadly spike to the face for him. Of course he would. Knowing his luck, he should just be counting his lucky stars that he hadn’t stumbled upon Oikawa and Kuroo making out against a wall someplace on the way there.

 _There’s always the walk back,_ a treacherous voice whispered from the back of his head. He willfully ignored it.

“Uh, hi, Kyoutani,” Smooth. “You work here?”

“Not really,” Kyoutani shrugged and finished walking over to him. “My dad does. I’m just helping out.” He nodded at Momo. “I didn’t know you had a cat.”

“Oh, yeah, I do,” He lifted Momo up a little. “Say hi, Momo.” He immediately wanted to slap himself, but unfortunately his hands were full of sick Maine Coon. What the hell was wrong with him? _Say hi?_ He briefly wondered if you could suffer vicarious brain damage or something, because he was sure he had it.

But Kyoutani just bent over a little, reaching out to place one of those broad hands -which Shigeru could remember clearly, gripping his arm, gently supporting his hand- on Momo’s fluffy head. “Hey, Momo. You sick?” He rubbed a little, Momo lifting his head to butt at his fingers, a rumbly purr echoing in his throat and in Shigeru’s chest. What was going on with him today?

“How’s your head?” He blurted out, biting his lip when Kyoutani straightened up to look at him. “From yesterday?”

Kyoutani shrugged again. “It’s fine. Just a bruise.” And Shigeru could see it now that he mentioned it, the mottled patch of red across one temple. It wasn’t swollen, but it looked more than _fine_. “Oi, stop that, I said it was fine.” Shigeru jerked back, Kyoutani scowling at him. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Are you sure?” Shigeru snapped back. “Because it looks pretty bad to me.”

“I told you already,” Kyoutani actually rolled his eyes at him. “I’ve had worst.”

“Comparing this to getting hit with a baseball bat doesn’t really make me feel any better about you getting hurt because of me.”

“Then pay more attention next time,” Kyoutani shot back, raising an eyebrow at Shigeru’s indignant expression. “What?”

“I didn’t ask you to come to my rescue, you know,” Shigeru groused, shifting Momo around, hoping his arms weren’t actually going numb.

“You don’t have to,” Kyoutani told him bluntly. “I’d do it again.”

“What?” He squeaked, slightly unnerved by the nonchalant expression Kyoutani was wearing.

“I’d do it again,” The other boy repeated. “If I had to.”

Where the hell was this coming from? Didn’t they hate, or at the very least, dislike each other? And why was it so hot in this clinic? Or was that his blood pressure again? He needed to get that checked out.

“Why?” He would go to his grave denying that the pitch of that question reminded him a little too much of Oikawa at his most whiny. He didn’t need to think of Oikawa right now, and all that brought to mind.

“Because I want to.” How could Kyoutani Kentarou, who spent most of their first year communicating with everyone with different variations of the same range of loud insults, say this stuff so shamelessly without batting a single eyelash while Shigeru himself felt like he was drowning in all the blood that had rushed to his face. Unreal.

Luckily for his continued sanity, the receptionist chose right then to return, a tall, broad, familiar looking man in a white coat trailing after her.

“Oh, Ken-chan,” She blinked at them, looking back and forth with a questioning look. “Do you two know each other?”

“Yeah, uh, we’re in the volleyball club together,” Kyoutani finally looked away from him, and Shigeru felt like he could breathe again. “Do you need me up here anymore, Miyuki-san?”

“No, no,” She waved him off as she settled behind the counter. “You can go hide in the back again, Ken-chan. It’s alright.”

“It’s not like that,” He groused, rubbing his head with a scowl. “I just scare the kids up here. And the adults.”

There was no way Shigeru could have stopped the trill of hysterical laughter that escaped him then, and he refused to let himself be embarrassed by it. That still didn’t stop him from averting his eyes when the man in the coat -the vet who was going to see Momo? - looked over at him. “Sorry,” He coughed.

“No,” The vet shook his head slowly. “It’s true. It’s why I tend to stay in the back too.” He reached over and gave Kyoutani a gently shove forward. “Take your friend’s cat and come on, so we can go hide in the back together.”

“Dad,” Kyoutani grumbled, but he did what he was told to do, reaching for Momo before stopping right before making contact with Shigeru. “Can I?”

“Uh, sure,” Shigeru fumbled to pass Momo over without dropping him. “He’s really heavy, so be careful.”

Kyoutani grunted as Momo settled heavily against his chest. “It’s not a problem.” He scratched behind Momo’s ear and the giant traitor purred again, sniffing curiously at the band around his wrist. “He’s pretty cute.”

Shigeru rubbed his arms, feeling the loss of something to occupy his hands with acutely. “Thanks.” He was a mess, he knew he was, and he probably looked ridiculous to Kyoutani’s dad, standing there with a red face and covered in orange cat hair.

He peeked up and sure enough, Kyoutani’s father was looking at him with the same eyes as his son, a twist to his mouth as his gaze settled on his hands before sliding over to Kyoutani, an alarmingly curious look overtaking his expression.

Kyoutani had already begun to move towards the back when he stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Dad?”

Kyoutani’s father just shook his head before looking at Shigeru with a small smile. He couldn’t help but wonder if that was what Kyoutani would look like if he smiled. It was a nice smile.

“If you would follow me, Yahaba-kun,” He gestured to where Kyoutani’s back was disappearing down the hall. “It’s just this way.”

Shigeru followed after him and couldn’t fight off the bubble of frustration that welled up in his throat at once again, feeling like he was missing something.

He saw Kyoutani’s father disappear into a small little room, and heard him immediately start chuckling. “Seems that he likes you, Kentarou.”

He popped into the room in time to see Kyoutani grumbling as he fought with Momo over his wristband, one of Momo’s clawed paws firmly entrenched in the soft fibers.

“You never had him declawed?” Kyoutani’s father asked him lightly, pulling different instruments out onto the counter.

“No,” Shigeru answered distractedly, watching the minute tenseness spreading over Kyoutani’s muscled back. “My mom thinks it’s inhumane.”

“A pretty good reason,” The vet praised him, but Shigeru was honestly only half paying attention because from where he was standing he could see a lot more of Kyoutani’s wrist than he ever had before. He could see the obvious tan-line from constantly being covered but the covered skin was still a shade darker than his own, but more importantly he could see the shape of something familiar in black, something that vaguely reminded him of his father’s mark, with it’s spreading petals, but more prominently, of the flowers now sitting in a makeshift trophy-vase in his room. On a completely different level, the feeling of _familiar/remember/home_ hit him in the stomach for one brief breathtaking second before Kyoutani finally managed to unhook Momo’s last claw and pulled the ragged band back into place.

“I’m going to go clean the cages,” Kyoutani muttered as he stormed out, sparing Shigeru the barest of glances before he was gone, leaving him, once again, barely standing in a whirlwind of disjointed thoughts and confused emotions.

Oh my God.

_Oh my God._

Was that-? Could it really-?

“Yahaba-kun?”

“I need to sit down,” He wheezed, slumping onto the ground right where he stood, to the great alarm of Kyoutani’s father.

Was this really his life?

**Author's Note:**

> OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! Yahaba, child, where are going to go from here? (This is an honest question, I am literally making all of this up as I go.)
> 
> And was Momo the cat inspired by Mikoshiba Momotarou from Free? Yes, yes he was.


End file.
